The study by the Democratic staff of the House
Government Reform Committee discovered that a hodgepodge of voting
machines – some modern and some outmoded – was not distinctive to
Florida. The pattern was repeated across the country, contributing to a
suppression of votes by blacks and other minority groups.

The congressional study did not address how this
uneven pattern of thrown-away ballots – almost 2 million nationwide –
might have affected the outcome of the presidential election last fall or
whether any states that went narrowly to George W. Bush might have tipped
into Gore's column.

But the disparities in the disqualified votes suggest
that votes from low-income precincts with high African-American
populations were more severely undercounted than votes in wealthier,
whiter districts. Generally, Gore ran strongly in poorer areas and carried
the African-American vote by a margin of more than 9-to-1 over Bush.

The study focused on 40 congressional districts in 20
states, about 9 percent of the 435 congressional districts. Out of more
than 9 million ballots cast in those 40 districts, more than 200,000, or
2.2 percent, were not counted. In the low-income districts examined, the
discard rate was 4 percent compared with 1.2 percent in the wealthier
areas.

A Striking Variable

Though some ballots certainly represented voters
making no choice for president, the study found evidence that only a tiny
fraction of voters intentionally bypassed the presidential race. The one
striking variable in the numbers related to the quality of the voting
machinery.

Punch-card ballots – made infamous during the
Florida recount battle – had a 7.7 percent error rate in poor districts
and 2 percent error rate in affluent areas. By comparison, optical
scanning systems that alerted voters to errors led to a sharp decline in
discarded ballots, a 1.1 percent error rate in poor districts and 0.5
percent in wealthier ones.

The study's highest error rates were found in poor
districts in Miami and Chicago where 7.9 percent of ballots were not
counted and where punch-card ballots were used. The lowest error rate came
in a poor, heavily black district in western Alabama where an optical
scanning device was used and only 0.3 percent of the ballots registered no
choice for president, the
study found.

The study’s findings also undercut three leading
Republican arguments about Election 2000.

One is that the so-called “undervote” in Florida
– ballots registering no presidential choice – represented the
voters’ intent, not a machine malfunction. The study makes clear that
the far greater variable was the type of voting machine used.

Second, some Republican operatives have argued that
Democratic voters simply weren’t very bright and thus spoiled their own
ballots. Though inexperience among first-time voters and confusing ballot
designs were factors in Florida, the new study showed that outmoded voting
machines were the principal culprit.

Third, the study helps explain why exit polls might
have shown stronger support for Gore in some states than the official
results. Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, in particular, has
promoted a conspiracy theory that major national news networks
demonstrated a liberal bias by willfully delaying calls for Bush in states
that he carried by comfortable margins, when exit polls showed narrower
results.

Exit polls would simply register how voters thought
they had voted, not whether their votes were counted. In Florida, for
instance, accurate exit polls would have shown Gore carrying the state,
though narrowly. Tens of thousands of Gore voters would not have known
that their ballots had failed to register a vote for president or that
they had accidentally voted for someone else because of confusing ballot
designs.

Gains Not Estimated

Though the new congressional study does not estimate
how many votes Gore might have gained if updated voting technology had
been used in all districts throughout the United States, the findings
suggest that the black vote and the vote totals in other Democratic
strongholds were depressed by the inferior voting equipment in
lower-income precincts.

Newspaper reviews have shown that Gore was the
favorite of Florida’s voters. A USA Today examination put Gore's likely
Florida margin
at 15,000 to 25,000 votes. However, a combination of irregularities in
Florida vote-counting and Bush’s success in stopping recounts allowed
him to win the state by 537 votes – out of six million votes cast.

By getting all of Florida’s 25 electoral, Bush
narrowly won the Electoral College, though he trailed Gore by more than a
half million votes nationwide.

A Shaky Mandate

Despite his tainted victory and a lack of a popular
mandate, Bush entered the White House pushing a conservative political
agenda. That strategy dominated the first few months of his presidency,
but it also alienated Republican moderates and prompted Vermont’s Sen.
James Jeffords to bolt the Republican Party. That gave the Democrats
control of the U.S. Senate.

In the weeks since, Bush’s behavior has left more
and more observers with the impression that he is unhappy in the job.
Though in office less than six months, he has begun telling Republicans
that he is ready to go
back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, if he doesn’t get his way in
policy battles.

A source with knowledge about Bush’s day-to-day
personal activities said the president often seems disengaged from his
demanding responsibilities. The source said Bush spends a great deal of
his time resting and working out.

Sometimes, Bush appears bored even in public. While
celebrating his 55th birthday with family members in
Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush dispassionately answered a few questions from
reporters prior to a golf game with his father, former President George
H.W. Bush. As his father sat upright in the golf cart, George W. Bush
slouched backward, legs crossed, picking at the bottom of his golf shoe
and talking to the cameras.

The presidency also has put new pressure on Bush’s
immediate family -- and Bush has continued to demonstrate a questionable
parental role in dealing with underage drinking charges against his
19-year-old twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara. The daughters skipped his
birthday celebration in Maine, choosing to stay with friends in Texas.

For his part, Bush skipped a court hearing on July 6
at which Jenna’s lawyer entered a no contest plea on her behalf to a
citation that she had used a false ID in an attempt to buy an alcoholic
beverage, her second underage drinking offense. Legal experts say judges
prefer to see both the teenage offender and a parent in court to indicate
that the family takes the offense seriously.

Bush, who as Texas governor signed into law the
restrictions on teenage drinking, also could have set an example for other
parents by standing by his daughter in court. He could have shown that he
is not unlike other Americans confronting legal and family troubles.

Instead, Bush chose to vacation with his father and
some other relatives at the family’s ocean-front compound in Maine.

The decision was reminiscent of a situation last fall
when Jenna was hospitalized for appendicitis in Texas. Rather than stay by
his daughter's side, Bush left her in the hospital and went on a fishing
holiday with his father and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Amazing

Even reporters who have written favorably about
Bush’s early tenure have begun to show new skepticism about the first
popular-vote loser in more than a century to sit in the White House. For
instance, the New York Times’ Frank Bruni wrote a “White House Memo”
column noting Bush’s indiscriminate use of the word “amazing.”

In one case cited by Bruni, Bush commented on the
fact that he and an Associated Press reporter had the same birthday.
“The amazing thing,” Bush said, was that “we’ll have our birthday
on the same day again next year.”

The following day, Bush mused about the demands of
his job and its requirement that he receive daily briefings. “The
amazing thing about this job,” Bush said, “is the job seems to follow
you around.” [NYT, July 9, 2001]

Given the wrenching election battle of last fall,
more and more Americans seem to be holding a similar opinion. They appear
to be amazed that the awesome duties of the president of the United States
are following George W. Bush around – especially since it's increasingly
clear that the U.S. electorate wanted someone else.